Categories

Tag: Main

A Unique Environmentally-Themed Event With Toxin-Free Gear

With spring cleaning on some people’s minds, and Earth Day around the corner, getting rid of toxins and artificial fragrances are a great way to clean house. Noone wants lingering effects of any kinds of toxic items or rubbery, chemical smells lingering around the house.

Fifteen years ago, an American advocacy group called Women’s Voices for the Earth (WVE) was founded to eliminate a variety of toxins in cosmetics and household products. WVE is still around today, advocating for families to watch out for seemingly healthy cleaners that have been linked to reproductive and respiratory illnesses. With the low-quality of many products these days, chemicals and toxic ingredients are a lot more common than you may think.

A good way to clean your home of dirt and unsafe chemicals at the same time is by making your own household cleaners from items you find in your own kitchen. Now, how to make it both fun – and economical? WVE recommends hosting a cleaning party.

Why Host a Green Cleaning Party?

A Green Cleaning Party does not mean inviting guests over to clean the host’s home: All guests share the cost of buying bulk amounts of the main ingredients to make environmentally safe cleaners. For instance, a 32oz bottle of a store brand of all-purpose cleaner can cost anywhere from $4 to $8 dollars (Canadian or U.S.)

However, a 32oz of a home-made cleaner can cost 38 cents or less, if the ingredients are bought in bulk. Alone, the cost of olive oil, castile soap, Borax and baking soda might be intimidating to some budgets, forcing people with lower incomes to more affordable, but potentially toxic choices.

Pooling resources like money and empty containers among friends, and packaging them together can make this process fun. Make invitations for an Earth Day friendly event, as an excuse to get together and really make a difference in the level of parabens and bleaches that are currently in most commercial cleansers. There are many non-toxic, healthy, organic, completely green and eco-friendly cleaning items you can make yourself, ranging from soaps, to cleaners, to laundry detergent, to everything in between!

Earth Day Party Invitations

In your Earth Day party, reassure guests that cleaning ingredients will not be mixed while drinking cocktails, but fun “detergent themed” or “green” drinks will be available once all the cleansers have been made and put away. To really lower the event’s carbon footprint, send out invitations by email or electronic greeting cards.

Take a poll among your friends of who would like to make what kind of household cleaner, and agree to make the kinds that everyone agrees on. Not everyone may want furniture polish or drain-openers. Having everyone bring bottles and jars will also ensure that everyone gets to take home enviro-friendly products – safely. If you’d like, you can even swing by a dollar store in your area to find mason jars, glass bottles, and other easy to use containers.

Tips for Making Your Earth Day Party Easier

Ensure that there is easy access to a sink and plenty of elbow room at a table and/or counter.

Have labels pre-printed out or scribbled on masking tape for ready identification once poured into a bottle or jar. Print the item’s “recipe” and tape it to the container. This will help identifying the ingredients if a toddler should accidentally consume it – a call to the local poison control centre would help identify ingredients more easily than from a commercial cleaner.

If your kitchen space is limited, have guests make their batches in rounds. Half the room can enjoy cocktails while the other half mix their cleansers, then switch.

Email your friends the link that compares the prices of commercial cleaners with homemade ones: It includes “cleanser recipes” that they can make on their own, later.

Make Chemical-Themed Cocktails for Earth Day

A shot of the unnatural-looking blue curaçao into any cocktail is guaranteed to make it look like Windex or an industrial-strength chemical. Below is a recipe adapted from the LCBO Cocktail Lounge:

(Not-A) Glass Cleaner Cocktail

1oz vodka (plain, vanilla or blueberry flavoured)

1/2 oz blue curaçao

3oz lemonade

Fill a shaker with lemonade, vodka and blue Curaçao. Strain into a martini glass or large tumbler.

If your guests feel like they’d like to do more than drink cocktails and nibble on round, earth-shaped finger sandwiches, try encouraging them to sign a petition to get your government to persuade cleaning product companies to disclose their ingredients. Our health is tied in to our planet’s health.